Panty pads and mini-napkins are normally used at the end of a menstruation period when the discharge of body fluid is slighter, or between menstruation periods with the intention of collecting any fluid discharges that may occur. Persons afflicted with light incontinence may need to use incontinence guards more or less continuously. Persons afflicted with light incontinence have, in the main, control over their bladder emptying processes and only a few drops of urine will be discharged inadvertently. Drip incontinence is an example of light incontinence caused by the difficulty of an incontinent person, normally a male, to completely empty the urethra after urinating. Another type of light incontinence normal among women can occur as a result of physical strain, for instance when running, jumping, coughing and sneezing.
An absorbent article such as a sanitary napkin, an incontinence guard or a panty pad will normally include a liquid-permeable casing sheet, a liquid-impermeable sheet and an absorbent body placed therebetween. The liquid-permeable casing sheet is provided on that side of the absorbent article which is intended to lie proximal to the wearer's body, whereas the liquid-impermeable sheet is provided on that side of the article which is intended to lie distal from the wearer's body.
Sanitary napkins, panty pads and incontinence guards are normally fastened in the crotch of the wearer's underwear with the aid of adhesive applied in strips or other patterns on the rear side of the liquid-impermeable sheet. These adhesive surfaces are protected during storage and transportation prior to use by protective strips which are treated with a release agent and which are removed by the user in conjunction with placing the absorbent article in the underpants.
In order to enable the absorbent article to be removed from the wearer's underpants, it is necessary to balance the adhesive capacity of the adhesive against its release capacity. As a result, the article may slip from the wearer's underwear, either completely or partially, creating a problem for the user. It is highly probable that the article will become wrinkled even if it slips only slightly. This will result in the leakage of body fluid onto the wearer's underwear, primarily on the edges thereof.
It is known to solve this problem by providing the absorbent article with side flaps or wings which project out from the long sides of the article. These side flaps, or wings, are intended to be folded around the edge of the user's underpants, and fastened to the outside thereof, normally with the aid of adhesive applied to the rear side of the flaps. The flaps thus reduce the leakage of body fluid onto the wearer's underpants, partly by physically protecting the edges of the underpants and partly by providing more secure attachment of the article to the wearer's underpants. Fastener flaps of this kind are described in SE 455 668, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343, EP 130 848, EP 134 086 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,047, among others.
The aforedescribed side flaps function well in those cases when the underpants in which the article is to be fastened has a crotch part which is sufficiently narrow for the flaps to pass therearound to an extent sufficient to provide the flaps with a satisfactory grip. However, if the underpants have a very wide crotch part which is not generally flat, as in the case of boxer shorts for instance, the aforedescribed construction will fail.